Headline

Senate hits pause in confirming Trump judges

Coronavirus live updates: Global cases top 1.8 million, Trump retweets #FireFauci

USA faces 18 months of rolling shutdowns?

Sri Lanka celebrates first Easter since jihadist bombings in quarantine

Virus threat prompts Supreme Court to set phone arguments

WHO officials say it’s unclear if recovered coronavirus patients are immune to second infection

Obesity single biggest factor in New York hospitalizations ...

Nolte: Fauci said going to ‘malls, movie theaters, gym’ okay on Feb. 28th

Sailor from USS Theodore Roosevelt dies of coronavirus

Amazon to hire 75,000 more workers as demand rises due to coronavirus

Leaders seize new powers, dangers grow for democracy ...

George Stephanopoulos tests positive for coronavirus

Quotable Quote

Yet somehow we muddle through ...

Flaws

Flaw in Islam: Too Intolerant

Flaw in Hinduism: Too Tolerant

Flaw in Buddhism: Too Mystical

Flaw in Scientology: Too Militant

Flaw in Climate Religion: Unproven

Flaw in Christianity: Socialism

Flaw in Socialism: Human nature

Flaw in Capitalism: Greed

Flaw in Democracy: Tyranny of the Majority

Flaw in Communism: Too Authoritarian

Flaw in Feminism: Too Bombastic

Flaw in Diversity: Nonjudgmental

Flaw in Inclusion: Judgmental naïveté

Chow Mein

I have written about the rising threat from China many times before ... see: China vs. U.S.

Watching cable TV recently I saw a former ambassador to China opine on how this country differs from the USA. His primary point was that Beijing runs things top-down ... whereas we govern bottom-up. He referenced some recent autocratic developments in China to support this premise:

- a Chinese government attempt to profile everyone of its 1.3 billion citizens as to their loyalty to Beijing ... including a plan to insert state operatives into the homes of suspicious residents.

- the opening of reeducation (concentration) camps across its country to deal mostly with Muslim and Christians of questionable loyalty

- its attempt to get Google to develop a special search engine in China ... allowing authorities to monitor and censor how their people interact with the Internet there.

To me, China's autocratic top-down approach to government ... sitting atop the swing to capitalism is a lot more efficient than the clumsy bottom-up democratic approach here in America. However it also has a major flaw -- when they make a mistake it's a whopper ... witness Mao's "Great Leap Forward" started in the late 1950s that killed over tens of millions of its citizens.

The U.S. bottom-up democratic method is inefficient, yes, but it is also self-correcting. Democracy is far less likely to continue with a gigantic legislative boner that destroys far more than it helps. Will Xi Jnping, now Chinese president for life, make some monstrous mistakes with his  unchecked governance decisions? You bet your chow mein!

Girls' Basketball

Watching the Supreme Court confirmation vote on Brett Kavanaugh, I an disappointed but not surprised to hear the screeching harridans in the Senate gallery continually interrupting this process ... with screaming (mostly) female voices. I realize that these disruptions are the price we pay for our democratic freedoms, but these childish outbursts do nothing but demean the decorum of our legislative process ... and bring shame, once again, on the distaff side of our society.

Will such disruptions change any voting in the coming midterms? Certainly we know how the dozen or so banshees who were ejected from the  Senate will vote. I expect that many Republicans might put some footage from this hysteria in their campaign ads ... maybe juxtaposed with Justice Kavanaugh coaching his young daughters at basketball.

I certainly hope so.

Headlines

Federal judge orders Trump administration to reunite immigrant families

Trump has announced his plan to crack down on foreign investment -- and it's less harsh than expected

Millennial Socialist rocks Dem. Party

Spain: Students kicked out of dorms to make way for boat migrants

Bolton to meet Putin in Moscow

Weekly mortgage applications fall sharply, as home buyers drop out

Supremes  deal big setback for labor unions ...

Koreas plan to construct joint railway

America's problem isn't too little democracy, it's too much

North Korea making 'rapid' improvements in nuclear reactor despite Trump-Kim agreement

Shock poll: 44% see civil war soon in USA ...

Le Pen: EU can't be trusted on borders

Dirty Words

From Powerline Blog

The recent election of Donald Trump for U.S. President, the roiling within the European Union and the death of Fidel Castro in Cuba ... all have uncovered many misguided and twisted beliefs of newly disenfranchised progressives here and abroad. Now they are angry at feeling their power slipping away. You can see them carrying signs professing these regressive ideas and oppressive notions. Too often these placards carry messages anathema to freedom-loving people ... decrying what used to be held sacred. Now these sacraments have become dirty words to many on the left. Here are just a few of those words that have been so debased:

Patriotism ... Nationalism ... Family Values ... Capitalism ... Faith ... Truth ... Freedom ...  Rule of law ... Founding Fathers ... Democracy ... Honor ... Heroism ... Honesty ... Piety ... Loyalty ... Sacrifice

Are any of these words anathema to you?